Alamo Colleges: Are top dogs getting raises?

Budget discussions at the Alamo Colleges this year topped the charts in terms of confusion.

Though a finance commitee gave preliminary approval Tuesday night to the administration’s $273 million budget proposal, I am pretty sure trustees left the meeting a bit dazed.

I followed up with Jim McLaughlin, vice chancellor for administration, to get some clear answers.

First, there’s already buzz that even though the budget included no across-the-board raises, some top administrators are getting as much as a 10 percent boost in pay.

McLaughlin said he has no knowledge of this — he is not expecting a raise and neither are the other vice chancellors. Chancellor Bruce Leslie said he is not getting a raise.

However, Leslie said there is $3 million in the budget to raise pay for some faculty and staff, part of a long-term process to bring pay levels in line with the market, and he is working on a mid-year, across-the-board raise for everyone.

“All the administrators are abundantly aware that (pay) records are transparent,” McLaughlin said.

In addition to raises, there was also confusion over whether there is really a budget shortfall this year.

McLaughlin announced the $6.2 million shortfall, and suggested patching it with money from the district’s savings account. The district did not spend all the money it budgeted last year, so there were some leftover dollars available, McLaughlin explained.

If that’s the case, is there really even a shortfall? asked trustee Roberto Zarate.

“We get all this angst about going into a budget deficit situation, when in fact we don’t spend all our money,” said an agitated Zarate. “When we are budgeting, we need to be as close as we can to a real figure.”

But predicting that “real figure” is hard to do when trying to reduce jobs through attrition, McLaughlin said.

At the beginning of the year, you cannot assume that Professor X is going to quit or retire, so you must budget for their salary, McLaughlin said.

If Professor X does leave mid-year, the district likely won’t fill the job right away, saving the money they would have spent on him or her. If the job is really important, they may tap Professor Y at another Alamo College to fill the spot, leaving a second vacancy which may or may not be filled.

Multiply that example across the colleges’ 5,300 faculty and staff, and the savings begin to add up, McLaughlin said. But it’s hard to crystal ball that sum at the beginning of the year, and frankly, it’s risky to try, he said.

“It is the art of handling human capital,” McLaughlin said. “We are trying not to fire people or take their jobs out from under them before the year starts. But as soon as they leave, we are capturing the savings.”